Postfinance – neither fish nor bird

Switzerland is struggling with privatization. This can be seen in the example of Postfinance. The planned partial privatization combines the worst of two worlds.

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The political scramble over Postfinance is a lesson in regulatory policy. The former dairy cow of the postal company, with whose income classic postal services were cross-subsidized, has been losing profitability for years. It is also struggling to raise the equity that Finma, to which it has been subordinate since 2013, requires it as a systemically important bank. The Federal Council would now like to help the Post subsidiary by partially privatizing it and allowing it to grant loans and mortgages.

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